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1915

Typed letters belonging to A.M. Grenfell giving explanatory notes about the advance guard, rear guard, reconnaissance, musketry and horse grooming. Extracts include: reconnaissance notes that 'information regarding the enemy'۪s dispositions and the features of the country is absolutely essential for success in war'. Rear Guard notes that 'the conduct of a rear guard depends for its success almost entirely on the character, determination, skill, and energy displayed by its commander'.

Click on the link above to download the transcribed 'How to' letters. PDF's may take a while to download depending on the speed of your internet connection.

Written whilst in hospital it describes recent military engagements and his injuries. Francis Grenfell wrote numerous letters and kept accounts of the military engagements he was involved in and his day-to-day life whilst serving in the First World War, until his death in 1915.

Click on the link above to download the transcript of the letter. PDF's may take a while to download depending on the speed of your internet connection.

East London College Magazine was the student magazine and continued throughout the First World War. The regular features of news from the college, poems, stories, jokes, sketches, cartoons, and reports from union societies, continued. But the roll of service became a new regular feature, reporting the fate of fellow students to their friends.

Click on the links above to view individual pages of the College Magazine. PDF's may take a while to download depending on the speed of your internet connection.

The photograph depicts a family of four Belgian refugees who were harboured by the Lyttelton family. In 1914 Belgium asserted its neutrality under international treaty and Britain promised to defend this. However, after refusing to give permission to Germany to cross Belgian territory in order to reach France, Germany declared war on Belgium and invaded the country. Over 1 million refugees fled the country over the coming weeks, mostly to the Netherlands but also to France and Britain.

In February 1915 Germany declared the waters surrounding British Isles to be a war zone in which ships could be sunk without warning, and began the first U-Boat campaign with unrestricted attacks against merchant and passenger ships. The British Navy retaliated in March by imposing a total sea blockade on Germany, prohibiting all shipping imports including food.

Percy Smith experienced the newest most powerful naval gun, the 'fifteen inch Howitzer'۪, popularly known as 'Granny'. His attempts at sketching the gun were met with opposition and he was reported to his superiors as such sketches were 'suspicious'۪ and considered to be tantamount to a spying activity. Successive appeals at last reached General Aston, himself interested in etching, and Percy was allowed to continue unofficially.